Long-term heavy marijuana use could damage brain

Melbourne, August 9 (ANI): Persistent heavy marijuana use damages the brain's memory and learning capacity, Australian scientists have proved.

They also showed for the first time the earlier people developed their cannabis habit, the worse the damage.

Scientists from Melbourne's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne University and Wollongong University used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 59 people who had been using marijuana for 15 years on average.

The images were compared with scans of 33 healthy people who had never used the drug.

There was a reduction in the volume of white matter of more than 80 per cent in the users studied, Dr Seal said.

While the average age participants started using marijuana was 16, some began as young as 10 or 11 and were more seriously affected.

"This is the first study to demonstrate the age at which regular cannabis use begins is a key factor in determining the severity of the brain damage," News.com.au quoted Dr Seal as telling a foreign news agency.

Cannabis interferes with naturally occurring cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

"If you're a teenager and you've got all these natural cannabinoids in your white matter, it's not good to be introducing a lot of external cannabinoids in your system, because it stops the white matter maturing," Dr Seal said.

This is junk science and irresponsible conclusions based off junk science. It should not be propagated as proof of anything except that Rupert Murdoch has an agenda.

John

August 10, 2012 at 7:16 AM

More bad research into to the use of Cannabis...First and for most the news article has "no" academic references nor have the people involved released any official documentation to back up these claims. Second of all, the study was only performed on 59 people this is hardly a wide enough group to truly see correct statistics... Marc Seal before you come out with such damaging statements please have the proof to back up your claim.